Years ago when I was a boy, my parents would always plant a garden in our backyard. Partly for the joy and satisfaction of planting and watching things grow and partly out of need to provide because of our family’s limited finances. Whatever the reason, I loved to help plant, care for and harvest what came out of those gardens each year.
“Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 NLT
Yesterday, Sunday, January 14, 2024, our Pastor used a story and illustration of a pickle that reminded me of making pickles with my mother.
One particular year when I was probably 10 or 11, our little garden produced an overly bountiful crop of cucumbers. Our family loved those small, crisp cucumbers. Each year anticipating picking, peeling, slicing and then adding just a little salt to that delicious fruit. This particular year, the amount of cucumbers we harvested was so large that we could not eat them all and could not give them all away, leaving us wondering what to do with this bounty. Let’s make pickles!
“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38 ESV
So I recall my mother and I spending an entire summer day, picking, washing, peeling, slicing, preparing those cucumbers. We then prepped the jars with vinegar, herbs and spices that would “pickle” the cucumbers, giving them a delightful taste in the coming months.
Mom and I must have peeled 1000 cucumbers that day, or at least it seemed to a young boy. We “put up” (my Southern and country friends know this term) dozens of jars of cucumbers, now defined as ‘pickles.’ We proudly displayed our day’s hard work to present to our family and especially my dad when he arrived home from work.
I’ll never forget when dad came home from work. He praised our hard work. Then looked at the jars. Picking them up and holding them up to the light. Carefully examining the results of our hard work. After a few minutes he said, where are the skins? What? Skins?
In that moment we learned that we had prepared the cucumbers wrong. The hardest and longest part of our process, the peeling, was wrong. We had removed what held the cucumber and ultimately, the pickle together. We had removed the protective skin that God surrounded the meat of this fruit, giving it a firm foundation that held it together through the transformative, pickling process.
As you likely have surmised by now, the cucumbers assigned the name “pickles” by my mother and me, became mush in the jars. Being denied the foundation of their tough, outer skin they became vulnerable to the harsh treatment of the vinegar and eventually succumbed to the continual pressing in of the chemicals designed to work in concert with the whole cucumber. Their armor of skin had been removed, leaving them defenseless and ultimately discarded.
I want to encourage you today to wrap yourself in the protective arms of Jesus. To recognize that your tough, life-worn, experience hardened body is a gift from God, preparing and protecting you. The scars of risk and experience have formed an outer layer of ability to withstand what the enemy, Satan plans to throw at you. Your battle hardened outer skin protects the beautiful, giving, loving, caring, life-sharing inner person that God has created for hope and purpose to others. Accept and trust the process that God has and is taking you through.
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.” Luke 6:43-44 NIV
So today I invite you to laugh with me as I reminisce about that long day of cucumber peeling. I invite you to accept who and whose you are in Christ Jesus. I invite you to change the trajectory of your thinking from victim to victor. I invite you to accept that you are so perfectly and wonderfully made, that God created a single DNA for you. I invite you to allow yourself to be submersed in the life-altering solution that is Jesus Christ, resulting in a new and transformed you. A person pickled, preserved and prepared for the new life that God has for you.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-13 NIV
You’ve got this.